Optimizing Twitter Engagement

10 keys to gives the 10 keys on Facebook
brand activity this whitepaper optimizing
Based on the largest known study conducted
for optimizing
twitter Engagement Facebook engagement.

Based on an extended study of Twitter activity by major brands

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TWEET TWEET TWEET

©2012 Track Social tracksocial.com/whitepapers

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 3

2. Tweet Content 4

3. How Frequently to Tweet 7

4. Tweet Length 9

5. Timing of Tweets 11

6. The 10 keys to Optimizing Twitter Engagement 14

7. Methodology 15

8. About Track Social 16

OPTIMIZING TWITTER ENGAGEMENT | Table of Contents 2
©2012 Track Social

01 Type of Content:
Introduction

Introduction
Based on an extended study conducted on major brand activity on Twitter, this
whitepaper identifies the primary factors influencing engagement on Twitter,
and summarizes the findings as 10 Keys for Optimizing Twitter Engagement.

Total Number of Brands Studied: 100
Total Number of Tweets Studied: 50,321
Time Period: August 24, 2012 - September 28, 2012

OPTIMIZING TWITTER ENGAGEMENT | Introduction 3
©2012 Track Social

02 Tweet Content

In this section we look at how the type of Tweet – Image or Text – and the text content of the Tweet,
affect Retweet levels.

For those who prefer Facebook as a social platform, see our Optimizing Facebook Engagement
white paper at tracksocial.com/whitepapers.

For Twitter Engagement, Photos outperform Text by 91%.
Twitter has put a lot of effort into promoting the use of images in recent times, so perhaps it comes
as no surprise that Photo Tweets do so much better than regular Tweets. It is maybe more interest-
ing that Photo Tweets only compose 2.3% of all Tweets in this study.

OPTIMIZING TWITTER ENGAGEMENT | Tweet Content 4
©2012 Track Social

It should be noted that certain corporate use cases on Twitter, such as customer service, don’t lend
themselves to the use of images, and indeed that the platform itself was founded on the use of text.
However, it still seems that there is significant opportunity for brands to increase their engagement
levels through use of images.

Aside from the type of Tweet, obviously the content of the Tweet should be important to its response levels.

Every brand, product and target audience is different. Perfecting the content mix is a unique process
for each brand. However, Track Social has studied the message content of posts of 100 of the most
engaged large brands on Twitter looking for broadly applicable patterns.

Asking for a Retweet produces a 555% lift over the
average Tweet.
In our prior whitepaper, we observed that Likes can be driven up simply by asking. We observed a
similar phenomenon for Retweets. Also in line with Facebook, we see requests for captions underperforming.

©2012 Track Social

Hash tags, which are words prefixed with a ‘#’, produce a 35% lift. It is not clear whether this is as a
result of their increased searchability, or a boost given by using the ‘local vernacular’.

Interestingly, Tweets that openly referenced offers or coupons actually performed somewhat worse than
average.

As always, we need to reinforce that these are aggregate results. We observe a lot of variation between
brands, and it is critically important to consider each specific situation and analyze each brand on its
own merits.

Here are some general rules of thumb to help create your perfect messaging mix:

1. Hash tags increase exposure and response rate.
2. If you want an action, such as a Retweet, asking for it directly is often the best way to get it
3. View Twitter content as an integrated program, incorporating variety
4. Say it with pictures. Images work well in Tweets in general, almost doubling retweet rates

©2012 Track Social

03 How Frequently to Tweet

How often should a brand Tweet?

We followed the activity of major brands on Twitter to determine the effect of increasing Tweet frequency
on response levels via Retweets. We start by looking at Retweets per Tweet, as increasing numbers of
Tweets are made per day. For each Tweet Frequency we looked at the percentage of the Retweets per
Tweet compared to when a brand only Tweets once in a day.

Tweet strong or move along!
Low Tweet Frequency may be ineffective. When a brand Tweets 2-5 times per day they get more
Retweets per Tweet, by up to 300%, compared to when they Tweet only once a day. Twitter is a high
volume channel, and unless you Tweet enough to get noticed you may be wasting your effort.

OPTIMIZING TWITTER ENGAGEMENT | How Frequently to Tweet 7
©2012 Track Social

Response Per Tweet drops off after 5 Tweets are
made.
After 5 Tweets per day we saw a drop-off in the response per Tweet, suggesting possible diminishing
returns beyond this. Response per Tweet is important to consider because it impacts engagement levels,
the visibility of tweets, and brand perception. However it is not the whole story.

It is the Response per Day, rather than per Tweet, that represents the total amount of interaction a
brand is having with its consumers, and is representative of the total amount of touch-points they have
to get across their marketing message.

Despite the Retweets per Tweet falling, as brands tweet more the total number of Retweets only continues
to increase.

To assess the overall performance of different Tweet levels, Track Social uses the Response Score which
is a combination of Tweets per Day and Tweets per Post.

Our overall advice to brands is:

1. Commit to an ongoing Twitter program with a minimum Tweet frequency or your efforts
may be wasted.
2. Be aware that Retweets per Tweet does decrease with Tweet frequency. This can impact
Tweet visibility and have branding implications.
3. Increase Tweet frequency and monitor the results. As we have shown, it is possible to
increase Tweet frequency without negative consequences.
4. Regardless of how often you Tweet, your content has to be relevant and interesting to
your audience.

OPTIMIZING TWITTER ENGAGEMENT | How Frequently to Tweet 8
©2012 Track Social

04 Tweet Length

What is the optimal Tweet length for companies looking to increase engagement on Twitter?

We recently found that for Brands on Facebook, the shorter the post, the higher the engagement. By
comparison, all messages on Twitter are short… so we wondered what the effect of Tweet Length was
on response levels via Retweet.

On Twitter, smaller is not better.
On Facebook, engagement generally decreases as post length increased. On Twitter, the opposite happens
with engagement increasing as Tweet length increases.

Clearly, with Twitter applying a 140 character upper limit on all messages, tiny messages do not stand
out as much. Additionally, use of images to speak 1,000 words (or at least 1,000 characters) is far less
common on Twitter than Facebook, despite their strong effect.

However it is interesting that engagement levels on Twitter actually increase with length, are relatively flat
between 70 and 110 characters, and then roll off as the 140 character limit approaches. We believe that
70-110 characters is enough space to say something of substance, while giving room for a Retweeter
to add their own commentary and references.

OPTIMIZING TWITTER ENGAGEMENT | Tweet Length 9
©2012 Track Social

The perfect Tweet length appears to be around 100
characters.
We point out that writing a mid-size (70-110 character) Tweet is no guarantee of success. Nor is a short
or long Tweet destined to fail. The response to any specific Tweets depends on many factors.

As an aside, with response roll-off beginning just somewhat before the 140 character size limit, and
the need for URLs, Hashs and other references in Tweets, we can say that Twitter got it just about per-
fect with its 140 character limit.

Our overall advice to brands regarding Tweet Length is:

1. Keep Tweets to 110 characters on Twitter, unlike Facebook.
2. Consider using images to effectively increase the Tweet length.
3. Leave room for the Retweet, avoid crushing up against the 140 character limit unnecessarily.

OPTIMIZING TWITTER ENGAGEMENT | Tweet Length 10
©2012 Track Social

05 Timing of Tweets

What is the best time for a company to Tweet?

Catching the attention of individuals on Twitter is challenging at the best of times, however could it be that
some times are better than others?

First we look at activity by day of week:

Tweets on the weekend perform about 50% better
on average.
In particular we observe an increase in the number of comments received when a post is made on the week-
end, presumably because people have more time.

Next we look at the response by time of day. Note that the while the majority of posting activity in this study was
targeted at US based audiences, there is still a challenge in interpreting the data due to time zone differences.
Hence we have split the day into 3 broad sections, specified in Central Standard Time.

OPTIMIZING TWITTER ENGAGEMENT | Timing of Tweets 11
©2012 Track Social

The early Tweet catches the user
Tweeting in the evening results in around 60% more Retweets than during the day. This corresponds
to a similar result we observed for Facebook Posts. Interestingly, and unlike Facebook, overnight and
early morning Tweeting performed even better still, outperforming daytime Tweets by over 100%.

Aside from the availability of users, another reason that out-of-hours Tweets may perform better is
lack of competition. As the charts below show, despite the poorer response the bulk of Tweeting happens
during regular business hours.

Businesses are consistently tweeting at the wrong time
Finally, we observe that despite out-of-hours Tweets outperforming regular-hours Tweets by some
margin, businesses are still concentrating the bulk of their efforts on Twitter during business hours.

In general we believe this means they
are hitting a smaller audience at a
more competitive time. The result: less
than half the response levels.

As always, we need to reinforce that
these are aggregate results. We
observe a lot of variation between
brands, and it is critically important to
consider each specific situation and
analyze each brand on its own merits.

©2012 Track Social

For example, if you are targeting a business user, clearly tweeting out of hours would not generally
produce the best results.

However there are some general rules of thumb we can give to brands targeting a non-business
audience:

1. Tweeting is for night owls and early birds. For many products morning and evening
Tweets are clearly superior.
2. Tweeting consistently across the day. Unless your product demands it, do not Tweet only
in business hours.
3. Remember that your audience may be in multiple timezones.
4. Consider Tweeting at least equally across the days of the week.
5. Take into account holidays and other cultural events.

©2012 Track Social

06 The 10 keys to Optimizing
Twitter Engagement

1. If you want an action, such as a Retweet, asking for
it directly is often the best way to get it.

2. Hash tags increase exposure and response rate.

3. Say it with pictures. Images work well in Tweets in
general, almost doubling Retweet rates.

4. Increase Tweet frequency and monitor the results.
As we have shown, it is possible to increase Tweet
frequency without negative consequences.

5. Try to keep Tweets to 110 characters. The ideal
range for Tweets is 70-100 characters.

6. Connect with the audience by speaking in their
language and connecting with the events of the
day (trending topics, news events, memes, etc.).

7. Tweet consistently across the day. Unless your
product demands it, do not Tweet only in business
hours. After hours Tweets get a better response on
average.

8. Remember that your audience may be in multiple
timezones.

9. Consider Tweeting at least equally across the days
of the week.

10. View Twitter content as part of an integrated,
ongoing program.

OPTIMIZING TWITTER ENGAGEMENT | The 10 Keys to Optimizing Twitter Engagement 14
©2012 Track Social

07 Methodology

Summary
Optimizing Twitter Engagement is a series of articles that uses the Track Social analytics platform, track-
ing more than 10,000 brands on social media, to analyze what works and what doesn’t when it comes
to Twitter Engagement.

Brands
To conduct this study we monitored the Twitter streams of 100 well-known brands that are
active on Twitter:
A Googler, AT&T, Amazon, American Express, Applebee’s, Audi, BBC Breaking News, BMW USA, Brger
King, Bath & Body Works, Bed Bath & Beyond, Bulgari, Burberry, CBS News, Chanel, CNN, Chevrolet,
Chili’s Grill & Bar, Coach, Inc., Coca-Cola, Converse, DISH, Dell Outlet, Deloitte, Disney, Domino’s
Pizza, Dunkin’ Donuts, eBay, ESPN, Facebook, Ferrari Magazine, Firefox, FoodNetwork, Foot Locker,
Ford Motor Company, Fox News, G4TV, General Motors, Harley Davidson, HP Heineken, Hot Topic, In-
,
tel, JC Penney, Joyce Meyer, Lamborghini, LinkedIn, Los Angeles Times, Louis Vuitton US, MTV, Macy’s,
Mashable SocialMedia, McDonald’s, Mercedes-Benz USA, Monster Energy, Mountain Dew, NFL, Netflix
US, Nike.com, Nokia, Norwegian Cruise, Oracle, Oreo Cookie, People magazine, PetSmart, Petco,
PlayStation, Publix Supermarkets, QVC, Red Bull, Redbox, Research In Motion, Royal Caribbean Jobs,
Rugby Ralph Lauren, Subway Restaurants, Samsung USA, Skittles, Sony, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks
Coffee, Suzuki Accessories, Taco Bell, Target, The New York Times, Time Warner Cable, Toyota USA,
Twitter, UFC, US Navy, United, Verizon Wireless USA, Walgreens, Walmart, Warner Bros Pictures, Wells
Fargo, Wendy’s, Whole Foods Market, Xbox, ZARA, Zappos.com

Tweets
Total number of Tweets in study: 50,321

Time Period
Time period: Aug 24, 2012 - Sep 28 , 2012.

Engagement
The definition of engagement we are using in this study is strictly limited to the response of an audience
by retweeting.

For calculation Response By Post Frequency we use a weighting between Per Day and Per Tweet metrics
as follows:
Per Day: 1 Per Post: 5

OPTIMIZING TWITTER ENGAGEMENT | Methodology 15
©2012 Track Social

08 About Track Social

Track Social was developed by Sprokkit, a full service marketing agency, and launched in 2011. Sprokkit
and Track Social were founded by Morgan J. Arnold, a marketing entrepreneur with a PhD in Engineering.
Sprokkit is an award winning, full-service integrated marketing agency specializing in mid-size and
large brands. Clients include Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s, Denny’s and Del Taco.

To download a digital version of the white paper
or to get our Optimizing Facebook Engagement
whitepaper, go to tracksocial.com/whitepapers.

tracksocial.com
333 S Grand Ave Suite 1600, Los Angeles CA 90071.
Phone: 213 626 2076

facebook.com/tracksocial

@tracksocial

linkedin.com/company/track-social

For more information and a free assessment
of your brand, contact:

Haley Jones
VP Client Services Track Social
,
haley@tracksocial.com

OPTIMIZING TWITTER ENGAGEMENT | About Track Social 16
©2012 Track Social

Optimizing Twitter Engagement

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